Asi Burak accepts the Hall of Change award at Games for Change 2025. Source: Games for Change.
Categories

Asi Burak gets political in his Games for Change award speech | The DeanBeat

Politics is always a difficult area for game industry leaders to navigate. It is fraught with so many no-win risks that most leaders don’t even try to talk about it now.

That’s why Asi Burak, outgoing chairman of Games for Change, caught my attention last week with the speech he made as he was inducted into the G4C Hall of Change in New York last week. He was grateful for serving with the organization for two decades, and he was also unashamedly political.

Unlock premium content and VIP community perks with GB M A X! Join now to enjoy our free and premium perks. 

Join now →

Sign in to your account.

Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.